Boron neutron capture therapy – a brief review of principles and clinical applications
Division of Medical Biology, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland
Reactor Research Division, National Centre for Nuclear Research, Świerk, Poland
Centre for Radiobiology and Biological Dosimetry, Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Warsaw, Poland
Centre for Radiation Protection Research, Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) exploits alpha and lithium particles produced in the boron-10 fission reaction (10B(n,)7Li) with epithermal neutrons to inactivate cancer cells in the tumour volume ranges of produced alpha and lithium particles are limited to individual cells, so the boron-10 atoms should be located only in the target cancer cells. First, there is a need to administer to the patient the boron-10 carrier, which selectively deposits boron-10 atoms in cancer cells. Next, an external beam of epithermal neutrons must be delivered to the treated volume. BNCT is thus a bimodal method, combining epithermal neutron beam teletherapy with systemic therapy. Although BNCT is still under development, recent advances in boron-10 delivery agents and in accelerator-based epithermal neutron beam generation offer a new perspective for BNCT. These advances and some clinical applications of BNCT are briefly reviewed.
Keywords
radiotherapy, clinical trials, boron-10 carrier, neutron capture therapy
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